Neoliberalism and industrial policy in Kosovo: the mining and metals industry in the post-war transition

The economic trajectory of post-war Kosovo has seen the industrial economy of this newly independent country stagnate or contract. This negative trend has not spared the once-thriving mining and metals (MM) sector, in which even the few successful projects have developed as isolated and poorly integrated production "enclaves". Drawing on a neo-statist political economy framework of industrial development, this paper argues that the unsatisfactory performance of Kosovo's MM sector is largely the consequence of the dominance of the neoliberal policy paradigm, which powerful external actors have contributed to ingraining in the domestic regulatory institutions. Furthermore, the article documents that, in spite of these neoliberal regulatory structures, there have been some cases of interventionist industrial policy; and these cases account for the few industrial success stories of the last decade. However, state intervention in the economy has not been a deliberate plan; rather, it has occurred covertly or even unwittingly.